IntroHi guys, I'm new in the forum, but I thought it might be interesting to share my experience.
People usually say that to make an MMORPG you need millions and a huge team.
I've been wanting to make an MMORPG since I played Runescape 8 years ago, it took a lot of time to gather all skills, but in those last two years I've finished most of it.
I decided to make a MMORPG inspired by Pokemon, simply because it was my favorite game and I think the setting is quite nice for an MMORPG. Of course, I tried to keep away from any copyright problems, by using original monsters.
Originally I was using a free set of monsters I found online (by Neorice I think), plus some others people sent me.
Later I decided to release the game, so I negotiated with the original artist to have permission to use them. Later I wanted more monsters and so I decided to try to make my own designs.
The strategyMaking a MMORPG is hard!
I could not simply spend 3 years writing one and then finally try to release it, what if it failed?
I started with a 2D prototype that took 3 months to make (working on it fulltime) and released it.
Got lots of nice feedback, people loved it, so I worked on this prototype for a year, adding more features and such.
Later I finally decided to move into 3D, and since the code itself was done in a modular way I just add to replace the map and battle rendering code
Also I try to hear all feedback and adjust the game or even add new features that players request.
It was a really nice experience, I even made many friendships with players, that sometimes started because of the game crashing
The budgetThis was a MMORPG made with around 10k budget, mostly for art, since I'm mostly a programmer.
I worked with around 20 different artists, it was always difficult to find a good compromise between quality and price. In the end I choose 3 good artists that were able to keep a similar style and did most of the art with them.
Tools usedLanguage: Object-Pascal (FPC compiler)
Engine: Custom made by me
Software: GIMP, Blender, Tiled, Notepad++, Audacity (plus whatever the artists used, Maya I think)
The resultsCurrently 200 thousand downloads in Android, so I consider it a success.
iOS is kinda shaky, as I released some bugged versions and the one week wait for updates really caused me problems.
Later I went to Steam Greenlight, faced two major opinions, either people that loved the idea for such MMORPG, or others that were against it because it was a Pokemon-clone.
Anyway I got in after some weeks, currently working on the Steam version
One thing people don't seem to understand is that the concept of having monsters fighting was not even invented by Pokemon, other games like Dragon Quest had it before, Pokemon just made it wildly popular.
Still, I admit that in my initial approach I followed Pokemon too much when it was really not necessary. I was more focused on making all the tech than actually caring about the content of game.
Some weeks ago I decided to rework lots of stuff before releasing in Steam, to give the game opportunity to stand on its own unique features.
The linksSteam -
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=217626776Android -
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.terra.minimon3dI'll keep writing about the progress of the game, since it is not really finished, around 70% done I'd say.
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